Staff report

TIGERVILLE, S.C — Catawba’s baseball season ended on Saturday afternoon with a 6-5 loss to Mount Olive in the Southeast Regional.

Catawba (33-11) made a strong bid to rally from a 6-1 deficit, but fell one hit short.

It was the final game for an unusually strong senior class that had helped win a regional title in 2019 and had ascended to a No. 2 national ranking in 2020 when that season was stopped by COVID.

Bryan Ketchie’s last pitching effort for the Indians was spectacular. Ketchie, who had pitched eight innings on Thursday, threw four innings of scoreless relief and gave Catawba a chance to mount a comeback.

Mount Olive (37-11) had been on the short end of a lopsided loss to Wingate that had started Friday night and spilled into Saturday morning, but the Trojans bounced back against Catawba starter Greg Brown. Joe Mason whacked a three-run homer as Mount Olive knocked Brown out in the fourth on the way to a 6-1 lead.

Catawba came to life late behind Ketchie’s pitching.

Hunter Shepherd unloaded a three-run homer, his 12th of the season, in the bottom of the eighth to trim the Indians’ deficit to 6-4.

Then it got really exciting in the ninth.

Cameron Morrison reached on a throwing error with one out, and Henderson Lentz ran for Morrison. Joe Butts singled to left before Bryce Butler singled up the middle to score Lentz from second to make it 6-5. The Indians had runners on the corners with one out, but Cameron Mills hit a groundball to third, and the Trojans were able to turn a game-ending double play.

Butler and Butts had two hits each for Catawba.